The future of grassroots diplomacy, the growth of emerging communications channels like social and mobile for news consumption, finding an audience for political news beyond The Beltway and Politico’s appearance in columns by Howard Kurtz and David Carr are among the topics discussed.

This is my show about political news in the age of Social Media with Jim VandeHei, the executive editor and co-founder of POLITICO, a nonpartisan media company covering national politics and Washington governance.

Jim VandeHei, along with John F. Harris and Allbritton Communications, launched Politico in early 2007 and his since established it as a leading US new media company.

Vanity Fair recently named him one of the 100 most powerful Information Age thinkers for helping create the “model for the new media success story.”

07:55 — With Nearly 100,000 Twitter followers, Politico reaches double the number of followers of Roll Call and Congressional Quarterly. Jim responds to David G. Bradley’s quote in David Carr’s column media equation, which read, “I think that Politico’s entrance entirely changed what had been a pretty cozy market with a few incumbents — National Journal, CQ and Roll Call — and kudos to them for demonstrating there was a market beyond the Beltway.” A discussion of what Politico is doing differently to resonate with audiences beyond the Beltway.

10:10 — How Politico amalgamates the old media values of fairness and accuracy with the speed and immediacy of new technologies.

12:00 – Don Kilburg, Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Dept. of State asks, “In this era of instant communication and grassroots diplomacy, we recently observed someone previously unknown hijack the national discourse by threatening to burn a Koran. We then observed high ranking public officials comment directly on this, including the President. Do you think we’ll see more of this sort of grassroots diplomacy hijacking and where should high ranking officials and media editors draw the line in potentially adding fuel to the fire by covering it?”

14:10 — A discussion of the media’s responsibility with respect to Wikileaks, and whether or not the government should be able to abdicate the public’s right to know in the interest of “national security.”

16:43 — Jim responds to Howard Kurtz’s column about Politico blogger Ben Smith’s ability to draw vitriolic criticism with middle-of-the-road content and whether or not there’s anything that can be done to encourage greater tolerance for different points of view on the blogosphere.

21:30 — At first, democrats were significantly better at using social media to their advantage, but we’re starting to see republicans do a much better job. Resonating with an audience is all about understanding what they need and giving it to them.

24:50 — How to get an editorial board meeting with Politico and how to pitch news to reporters in the Politico newsroom.